June 1, 2010

The world of atheism is certainly one that has changed or should I say evolved a great deal over the last several years. As long as I can recall atheists routinely were opposed to and outspoken against religion, yet now it seems that atheism has evolved into a religion itself. Actually, atheism has always been a religion just a godless religion because not only is atheism a theological position, but it now has even created a church.

The point is that it is odd to me why atheists are so intent on proselytizing others to their religion. It looks to me like if atheism were true that it shouldn't matter to atheists what anyone else believes much less try to win converts.

2 comments:

Atheism is not, in and of itself, a religion. However it's long been a fact that atheists can and some are religious. The unitarian universalist church has had a prominent atheist contingent for a long time---long before the whole "new" atheist movement (though, actually, the only thing new was that atheist books were become bestsellers).

But from the fact that some atheists are religious it cannot be inferred that atheism is itself a religion---no more than it can be inferred because some religious persons wear socks that wearing socks is a religious activity.

* 21% of atheists believe in God (Pew Research Poll)

I've heard about that poll before. It's not that infrequent that pollers get contradictory answers. Often it's because of poorly worded questions or other bad design of the poll. Or maybe it's that some people mistakenly think that because they're "backsliden" they are atheists. Certainly interesting though.

The point is that it is odd to me why atheists are so intent on proselytizing others to their religion.

Promoting an idea enthusiastically doesn't make the idea religious. If it did then labor unions would be religions and "agitators" for unions religious leaders.

It looks to me like if atheism were true that it shouldn't matter to atheists what anyone else believes much less try to win converts.

Really, religious people routinely attempt to get their articles of faith enshrined in law and classroom. Religion motivates a wide variety of harms to individuals and society (from the catholic churches efforts to oppose condom use in aids inflicted Africa to the many women who've stayed in dangerously abusive marriages because of their religious belief that divorce is a sin---just to name a couple of all too many possible examples).....and I shouldn't want to speak out against that.

Rationality matters. Irrationality does deep harm. Which is why I speak out against psychic con artists, homeopathy, astrology, belief in witchcraft (killing of suspected witches is all too frequent among Christians in 3rd world countries), and, yes, the irrationality that is all too often institutionalized in religion.

And it's not all religion that I find objectionable. As you yourself mention, religion can take forms I'd consider quite reasonable and benign (unitarian universalism doesn't come up for much, if any, criticism from me, for example). It's rationality and critical thinking, more than atheism in itself, that most of us atheists are promoting.